Narrate This 3 HP Hit

[Balesir]

"She gets hit for 3 hp"

Not only is it simple and quick, it does not force any particular vision of what happened onto the players. The first one, for example, would cause some askance looks among my usual group (we have 3 archers - among the players, not the characters) and assignment to "luck" might not fit with the player of Elspeth's character vision.

If anyone is going to narrate what a particular hp loss means when we play, it's the player of the character losing hit points. The only limitations on how they do this are the rules - i.e. they know how many hps they lost and at zero remaining they narrate hitting the floor!

 

[DMZ2112]

For what it is worth, I think 3 HP means something completely different depending on the target's HP total and remaining HP. a character with 13/16 HP is winded, maybe. A character with 4/16 HP who takes 3 more is hurtin' for certain. And frankly, that's exactly what a numerical HP total tells us.

I don't do any of this math at the table -- it's all broad strokes -- but I tend to think about HP as a logarithmic scale. A character with 16 HP hasn't taken any real hits until they're bloodied at 8 HP. Once they're bloodied it becomes much easier to injure them -- a character at 4/16 HP has taken another injury that's going to need literal healing, in the sense of flesh knitting. At 2/16, another. At 1/16, another. And at 0/16, they're barely upright. Below 0, they have lost enough blood to lose consciousness and are bleeding profusely enough that their life is in immediate danger.

Of course, this is D&D, so these statuses have no in-game effect, other than that it becomes easier and easier to kill the character the more HP they lose, which is all the simulation I'm really looking for in D&D. A player with a character at 1 HP ought to /roleplay/ that character completely differently than when they are at full HP, but that's ultimately up to the player.

My choice in the poll was "she gets hit for 3 HP," but my answer would have been a lot different if the character had only 4 HP remaining and was hit for 3 more. That's a terrible blow. But at max HP you're still in the realm of fatigue, strain, and bruising. It's real damage, but within mortal powers of regeneration.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The emotional impact of that 3 damage will differ depending on who is doing the narration. 3hp of damage narrated soothingly by Morgan Freeman might only feel like a single point of damage (because he is that good), while 3hp of damage narrated by James Earl Jones might feel more like 6 points of damage (because he is that good).

 

[Jacob Marley]

16/16 hit points: "You take 3 points of damage."
13/16 hit points: "You take 3 points of damage."
10/16 hit points: "You take 3 points of damage."
7/16 hit points: "You take 3 points of damage."
4/16 hit points: "You take 3 points of damage, and you're clobbered."
1/16 hit points: "You take 3 points of damage, and you're dying."

 

[Viking Bastard]

While it largely will depend on the surrounding fiction/narration, I'd probably narrate it as the arrow hitting and hurting--leaving a bruise--but failing to pierce the chainmail.

 

[Agamon]

Since the poll asked for narration, I chose #2. Like many, I don't always narrate an insignificant loss of hp, but if I were to, #2 would be the closest.

 

[Umbran]

First hit when she's fresh? Unless there's something particularly notable about the event (it came from surprise, she notes the weapon is magical, or poisoned, or something else relevant during the attack, etc) I'm apt to make the narration for this "She takes 3 HP damage". I find descriptive narration on every single hit, when that narration doesn't have mechanical relevance, tends to become a bit tedious and repetitive. So, I usually save it for dramatic moments.

 

[sheadunne]

I'm not a fan of any description that narrates the character reaction by anyone other than the player.

1. Remove "Painfully"
2. Remove "causing her some embarrassment and stress"
3. Revise. Luck isn't a player/character resource that's measured on its own (unless you're using luck mechanics from Complete Scoundrel). If luck is being used to describe the lack of serious HP depletion, it should be defined in terms of what might have happened, such as "Luckily the chain mail absorbed most of the blow" or "luckily the arrow was made of poor quality and most disintegrated on impact."
4. Replace with "She takes 3 hp"





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[koga305]

While it largely will depend on the surrounding fiction/narration, I'd probably narrate it as the arrow hitting and hurting--leaving a bruise--but failing to pierce the chainmail.

This sounds about right. A similar hit with something like a battleaxe might be "you catch the blow on your shield, but it jars your arm." At 3/16 HP, it'll perhaps leave a bit of a bruise but not much else.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Yeah, I should have included a "bounces off the armor" option. In my defense, I was too busy being frustrated by the terrible poll creation form.